A slice of street life on the menu at Parisienne café...

If you like people watching and you live in reach of New York City’s Nolita district, have we got the slice of café cool for you! Perfectly positioned for gawping at the inhabitants of the blossoming neighbourhood while enjoying a latte, Cantine Parisienne on Kenmare Street enjoys some serious windows which also give the venue’s lighting a pleasantly natural hue.

A partnership between Maxime Paul-Mercier (Villa Pacri) and Stephan Jauslin (Tartinery), this laid-back place is more industrial than French fancy, featuring chrome, steel and a grey canvas onto which has been laid some sparing splashes of colour from the blue and red chairs – the lighting installation and exposed concrete adding a dash of cutting-edge. Because there are only 74 spaces in the intimate bistro, they are all guaranteed to have a good vantage point for gazing out onto the bustling NYC street scene. The architect responsible was Guy Reziciner, whose past projects include the dinette at MoMA PS1 which is a successor to his late great M Wells Diner.